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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649163">Wires</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wllw/pseuds/wllw'>wllw</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Borderlands (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Begging, Fantasizing, M/M, Memories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:35:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>420</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wllw/pseuds/wllw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He still thinks about Jack, sometimes, in the quiet of the Atlas facility.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He still thinks about Jack, sometimes, in the quiet of the Atlas facility. It's dark and everything's still, the only things that move are things that might potentially try to kill him (<em>welcome to Pandora, kiddo</em>), and Rhys might be going a little bit crazy.</p><p>So he thinks about Jack, because it's easier than thinking about Fiona and Sasha, who left him to die on Helios, about Vaughn, who's probably lying dead in some dusty ditch by now, about Yvette, who betrayed him without a second thought. Jack betrayed him too, of course, but that one's easier to deal with.</p><p>Because, see, Rhys won.</p><p>He won so utterly and completely that he had the galaxies' greatest monster on his knees before him, pleading for his life. The life that Rhys held in one hand.</p><p>He wraps his fingers around the ECHO eye; it feels so light in his palm, so fragile. He could break it so easily. He should, maybe, but how can he when he can close his eyes and so vividly recall the image of Jack, scared and broken and begging Rhys to spare him?</p><p>Yeah. He likes that. And because this is only a memory, maybe he can picture it a little differently. Maybe Rhys can be a bit calmer this time, a bit more self-possessed. Maybe he can let this go on a little longer, really hold the eye over Jack's head like a hangman's noose. Maybe this time he'll be able to reach out and touch Jack's ghostly form, curl his fingers in Jack's hair—with his flesh arm, of course, so he can really feel it—and push him down until his forehead's touching Rhys' skag-skin shoes.</p><p>And then he'll really make Jack beg. Offer Rhys everything Jack has, everything he's ever wanted, so Rhys will be able to see the look on his face when the truth finally settles in—that Jack has nothing to give him. That Rhys has taken everything from him. That Jack threw it all away when he chose to betray the only friend he had left, and...</p><p>But it's quiet, inside the Atlas facility, and none of that will ever happen. Rhys has nothing except a broken ECHO eye, a useless deed, and an awkward erection that he won't do anything about because he won't be like <em>him</em>. But someday he'll have more than that, and when he and Atlas have Pandora in the palm of his hand, maybe then Jack will see what he missed out on.</p>
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